


What's in a Roomba?

by kuromantic



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Hybrid AU, Hybrids, Roombas, how do I even tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22091497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuromantic/pseuds/kuromantic
Summary: Bokuto discovers a mysterious creature in his territory, and decides to take care of it.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou
Comments: 11
Kudos: 94





	What's in a Roomba?

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how I wrote this in one day, but here we are.

There’s something unusual, on Bokuto Koutarou’s territory. 

_ His  _ territory, that he’s guarded and lived in ever since he could first catch food on his own. He’s chased out many other stray hybrids, growling and scratching until they were covered in each other’s fur.

Around where he’s settled, everybody knows not to screw with his territory. Some strays feared him, others came to befriend him. But he lived alone, and he liked it that way. 

A black, round creature spins on his territory in circles. It keeps making deep, choked-up noises and Bokuto’s never heard anything like it. Bokuto creeps up to the creature, grabs it with both his hands, and seizes it in the air. 

“Hey! This is my territory! If you don’t get out, I’ll fight you!”

The black creature only whirs helplessly, moving in the same motion. It doesn’t seem to care about Bokuto’s words, in particular. 

Bokuto squints, and flips it on its back. After his hands roam about for a while, he finds a black piece on its back that he can move. It must be its vital area. 

“If you don’t talk, I’ll kill you! You’ll die if I hurt this part, won’t you?!”

The black creature doesn’t change its actions. In an enraged huff, Bokuto flicks the black part, and the creature’s movements cease. 

Bokuto’s eyes flare open. “Hey, are you really dead?!” He shakes the round creature as hard as he can, but there’s no response. He feels sick. He’s never actually killed anything that size before. He didn’t know it was so fragile. 

Not knowing what else to do, Bokuto flips the black part of the creature again. Maybe if he did it again, it would bring it back. 

To his surprise, it starts whirring again, with something that’s not quite fit to be called legs. 

“...Do you even know this is your vulnerable spot? How have you been alive, all this time?”

Bokuto shakes his head, sighing. If the creature is spotted by someone more aggresive than him and dies, he’ll feel responsible. 

“You can stay here for a while.”

~

Bokuto realises soon enough that attempts to communicate with the creature are futile. He has to start every conversation, and hope that the creature is comprehending him. And once his stomach starts growling, there’s another problem. 

“Hey, aren’t you gonna tell me what you want to eat?”

Bokuto grabs the creature, flipping it and trying to find where its mouth is. He can only guess it eats grass and plants- it’s way too weak to be a carnivorous animal. 

“I eat plants and fruits. And if you won’t tell me what you eat, you’ll eat the same food as me. Have any complaints?”

The creature makes the same noise it’s been making for the past few minutes. 

“Okay. Stay there.” Bokuto places the creature at the bottom of a tree, making sure it won’t move off on its own. “I’ll get some fruit.”

He scuttles up the tree’s branches, gripping them with his hands tightly as he swings up higher and higher. He’s become used to climbing trees, now. It’s all second nature to him. 

After yanking a few ripe apples from the bushes, Bokuto throws them down. He gathers a few more, slowly adding to the pile on the ground. He needs to be quick about it, before another stray passing by can take the apples and run. He plops down onto a lower branch, leaping off and landing on the ground. 

“You can have one, you know.”

Bokuto pushes an apple towards the creature, but it merely circles around it curiously. He sighs, biting off a chunk and tossing it towards the creature. “Can’t you eat an apple on your own? How have you been surviving up until now?”

And then, it dawns on Bokuto. The creature is just a child, lost from its family. The mother of it must be larger, and worried. But he’s never seen anything like it- had it come from somewhere really far away? Maybe from another country, where they didn’t speak Bokuto’s language. 

“Don’t you miss your siblings? Your parents?” Bokuto asks, tossing chunks of apples at the creature while taking a bite out of his own. “Can’t you take me to where they are?”

He sighs, when he doesn’t get an answer. It’s getting late, and he knows better than to roam around late at night. He’ll have to go to sleep, and then figure out a way to return the creature to its family.

~

“Don’t you get tired of moving around?” 

Bokuto had hoped the creature would wear itself out and go to sleep, but the whirring and moving around never ceased. 

“Are you scared? Is that why you can’t sleep?” Bokuto asks, but as usual, there’s no answer. With a sigh, he picks up the creature. “Is your spot what makes you go to sleep?”

Bokuto can only guess yes. When he’d flicked it the first time, the creature stopped moving. When he hit it a second time, it woke up. That had to be it. 

He flicks it again experimentally, and all movements cease in an instant. That must be how the mother puts it to sleep, he guesses. 

“It’s okay. We'll find your mom tomorrow.”

Bokuto falls asleep, with the creature hugged to his chest. 

~

When Bokuto wakes up and flicks the creature back into consciousness, he notices how its movements have slowed. “You okay? Are you feeling sick?” He fusses over it and checks for any abnormalities, but he doesn’t find anything noteworthy. 

The creature hums, moving and stopping at random. Bokuto doesn’t know why- homesickness? Or maybe it’s because he’s been feeding it the wrong food. Either way, he needs to find the creature’s family. They would take care of it. 

“Come on, buddy, you can do this! Take me to where your family is!”

Bokuto sets the creature on the ground, and slowly, it moves forward. He follows closely, cheering it on every time it slows down or stops. 

But the time between the stops only shorten, no matter how much Bokuto cheers it on. It stops moving completely, after a while. Bokuto picks it up, patting it softly. “Hey, you’re alive, right? You’re gonna be able to meet your mom soon! Don’t give up!”

There’s no response. Bokuto’s eyes fill with tears. He’s somewhere he doesn’t know, led by the mysterious creature, now dead in his hands. Is it because of him? He hiccups, wiping his eyes and looking around. It’s a neighbourhood he’s never been in. 

He has to bury the poor little creature. It’s the least he can do. 

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t bring you to your parents…”

Bokuto hiccups, digging into the ground until there’s a decent-sized hole for the creature to fit in. He can’t help blaming himself for the death of the mysterious creature. It didn’t move anymore, no matter how many times he pressed its vital spot. 

“Oh, hey! Is that…”

Someone comes towards them. Bokuto realises it’s an owl hybrid, just like him. But he’s dressed much nicer, and his hair isn’t unkempt and dirty. He must be from the rich neighbourhood he’s landed in. 

“It’s dead. I’m burying it.” Bokuto weeps, tears dripping onto the ground. “I couldn’t take it back to its parents. It was lonely, it must have been!”

The owl-boy laughs, taking the creature out of the hole. Bokuto reacts with immediate anger, scratching his hand so hard it leaves a red mark. 

“You… don’t know what this is?” The boy flicks the creature’s back, and hums. “Oh, the batteries are dead. “This is a roomba. It’s a machine people use to clean their home.”

Bokuto blinks at the boy, and at the ‘roomba’. “Its name is roomba? How do you know? Is it gonna come back to life?”

The boy extends a hand over to Bokuto’s. “Come with me, and I’ll show you.”

Bokuto isn’t sure whether to give the boy his trust, but he reluctantly follows, rejecting the hand. It’s truly an affluent neighbourhood, he can tell. 

“Here’s my house. Come in.” The boy leads him to a building that’s higher than any tree he’s seen. “Mom, I found the roomba. Well, someone else did.”

A woman comes down from above, stepping on a bumpy-looking slope that Bokuto’s never seen before. “Keiji, who’s this?”

“He found the roomba.” Keiji explains, and Bokuto takes a step back, slightly apprehensive. “He doesn’t seem to know what it’s used for. Hey, do you have a name?”

“Koutarou…” Bokuto mumbles. “Is it gonna come back to life? Is it okay?”

Keiji’s mother smiles at him. “Of course. Thanks for finding it. It’s… not really something that’s alive. Think cars, or rocks.”

Bokuto tilts his head. “But it’s gonna start moving again, right?” He says, and Keiji sticks the roomba into something connected to the wall. “What’s that?”

“It’s what gives the roomba its energy.” Keiji explains simply, after thinking about it for a minute. His mother opens up the roomba, emptying out the particles trapped in it. 

“...Is that an apple piece?”

“I thought it was hungry!” Bokuto pipes up, and they both chuckle. “...So, this is something made by other people to clean houses?”

“Yes. We appreciate you bringing it back to us.” Keiji smiles, holding his hand out one more time. “Would you like to stay a little longer?”

Bokuto takes the hand this time, feeling slightly guilty about the red mark on Akaashi’s hand. “...Yeah, I think I’d like to.”


End file.
